


The Things Holding You Back

by Tuff Greg (EmmaFitzgerald)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-divergent from then on (I can only assume), Gen, Spoilers through Episode 53/Suffering Game Chapter 3, taako angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-13 08:41:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9115390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaFitzgerald/pseuds/Tuff%20Greg
Summary: “Wonderland is about sacrificing the things that are holding you back in order to get what you truly desire! It’s up to you to decide which is which!”Taako is having a rough time in Wonderland, so he phones a friend. Things get more complicated from there.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

While Merle and Magnus were getting acquainted with a severed head, Taako was running the numbers. Math had never been among his strong suits, but it didn't take a particularly high intelligence to know that things didn't look good. He could take one, _maaaybe_ two good hits before he was toast.

He looked back at Magnus and Merle, who seemed to be largely ignoring his current predicament. He couldn’t decide whether he was happy about that. Magnus, who was normally bursting with emotion and pity, chose the one time Taako would’ve taken some sympathy to rise above it. Taako had always thought he’d rather die than ask for help, directly anyway, but he was in No-Healing-Wonderland and he was hurt, badly. Still, like hell was he going to let those bozos know that if he could help it. It's not like they were able to do anything about it.

He tuned back into the conversation in time to hear Cam say there wasn't any way out of Wonderland. "Then why do people come here?" he asked. The unasked questions about how and why they themselves were there hung in the air, but before Taako had time to start dealing with any of that, Cam answered him. 

“They come here because whatever their heart desires is supposedly waiting for them here"

Taako knew what desperation felt like. He’d been doing all right for long enough that he was almost embarrassed how quickly he was able to recall the feeling. Though maybe it was the sharpness in his ribs whenever he breathed or the bloody bile that kept creeping up into his throat whenever his focus drifted from keeping it down.

When Cam mentioned liches Taako knew what he had to do. He had one card left to play and while he definitely wasn't looking forward to using it up, it was still better than any of the alternatives. He carefully slipped his hand into his pocket and took out his stone of farspeech, switching it away from the Bureau’s frequency and onto another. He didn’t have the energy to explain the situation, but hoped that all the background blabber about liches and suffering and code words would get the message across. He definitely wasn’t asking for help. He was doing this dude a favor. Wasn’t dealing with weird undead magic shit Kravitz’s whole deal?

They left Cam in the pocket workshop. As they made their way (back?) to the fucking Wheel of Sacrifice, Magnus’s blathering about the four lights above the door meant that he hadn’t heard the rift tear open behind them. Taako wavered for a moment, wondering if he could still play this off somehow.

He looked down at his feet and realized that despite his height, he had already considerably lagged behind the other two boys. With little regard to what he considered his very positive attitude (all things considered) black smoke seeped out of his mouth with every breath, making even more conspicuous the way it hitched every time he _almost_ forgot about his ribs. He heard a throat clear behind them to the right and with all the confidence of someone who had somehow survived this long, he opened his mouth.

 “Okay, hey, this one, I’ve got this one. Mags, just hold on. Here’s the thing. I promise that I will explain a whole bunch of stuff as soon as we get out of this fucking pain orgy or whatever. But first my dudes, and you’re not going to like it, especially you Merle, uh sorry, but you have to trust me. He’s here to help. I think.” 

 

* * *

 

Kravitz had imagined he would walk straight out of the rift, march up to Taako, and demand to know what in the realm was going on, but as soon as the rift closed behind him, he felt something _off_ about this place. He’d heard of Wonderland, of course, the Raven Queen had long suspected something unnatural going on there and it had been easy enough to get her leave to investigate. But nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Taako, hunched over and trailing behind his friends, badly bloodied. Thoughts flashed through his head. _Taako was by far the worst off of the three. His connection to the Raven Queen seemed distant when he tried to charge a healing spell. Perhaps that was why the cleric had left Taako like this. Taako was hurt. Taako could die here. Kravitz hadn’t even realized how much–_

His thoughts were interrupted by Taako’s declaration. It seemed safe to assume the elf hadn’t told the other two about their meeting, or their date. That should be interesting. As Taako turned towards him, Magnus seemed to be confusedly trying to form words and Merle began to object, growing only louder as the facts of the situation dawned on him.

However, before any of them got the chance to do anything, two extremely glamorous elves appeared in the room. The liches. Kravitz stiffened. The female elf appeared to his right, midway between him and where Merle and Magnus stood. The male elf appeared between Taako and his companions, seeming to magnify the distance between them. The two liches looked around, apparently delighted by what they saw. Kravitz could only see the black necrotic energy emanating with each of Taako’s shallow breaths. Anger welled up inside him as the female elf spoke:

 "Welcome to Wonderland! We don’t usually get additions mid-journey"

 “Usually the opposite!” the male elf chimed in. “But then, we haven’t had a reaper here in an age either!"

 “Hmmm, Kravitz, is it?” The female elf cooed. She was closer to him now, though he hadn’t seen her move. “What do we have for you here?"

 “Oooh, that’s very interesting” The male elf, the second lich, mimed like he was paging through a book. “As I’m sure you know, the purpose of Wonderland is to give beings what they most desire and help them get rid of the pesky things holding them back!”

The sound of papers fluttered between the two elves, who looked between the four of them and back at each other with a growing sense of glee that made Kravitz’s stomach tense. He tried to shake his feeling of dread. He needed to focus, he had a job to do.

 The male elf shifted his gaze between Kravitz, Merle, and Magnus as the female elf continued, “Normally, this is where we make adventurers spin the Wheel of Sacrifice. But this round, given the current state of affairs,” her glance flashed towards Taako, then to his friends and back to Kravitz, "we’ve decided to do something even more fun!"

 “Wonderland is about sacrificing the things that are holding you back in order to get what you truly desire!” As the male lich spoke, the female appeared beside him, just on the other side of Taako. Her phantom arm seemed remarkably solid as it wrapped itself around his bloodied torso. At her touch, the black smoke that had been leaking from Taako’s mouth now streamed out, and the lich seemed to bask in it.

The wizard cast his gaze in the direction of Magnus and Merle, before looking back towards Kravitz. As Taako’s eyes locked onto his own, they betrayed the elf's fear and, for just a moment, a realization of something else, before all three elves vanished, leaving Kravitz and the other two adventurers alone. 

The female elf’s voice rang through the darkness. “It’s up to you to decide which is which!” 


	2. Chapter 2

This was easily Magnus’s least favorite feeling. For all he reassured himself that his team, his friends, were capable, powerful even, and he could trust them to take care of themselves, he could never fully shake the idea that it was his responsibility to keep them safe.

The words “in Wonderland, there is no healing” had been looping themselves through his brain since the elves had first said them, since he had seen Taako stagger again as they had taken the damage, seen the look in his eyes.

Magnus hadn’t realized how far Taako had fallen behind until he’d started speaking. His racing mind was trying to understand what Taako was talking about when he noticed Kravitz, the reaper who had tried to kill them in the Miller lab, taking a step towards them. Magnus began to reach for his shield but when the elves appeared both hands moved towards his axe. He stood frozen in place as they spoke. It took all of his willpower not to charge them, but who knows how they’d react and the last thing they needed was some extra punishment.

“Wonderland is about sacrificing the things that are holding you back in order to get what you truly desire!”

When the female elf grabbed Taako, Magnus reacted too slowly, turning to run towards them a single second before they disappeared.

“It’s up to you to decide which is which!”

Still, Magnus ran towards the spot where they had been, grasping at the air, searching for some sign of his friend. How had they taken Taako? They were holograms. _No, liches_ , he remembered Cam’s explanation. Powerful magical creatures. But what did they want with their wizard?

Finally, Magnus remembered Kravitz. He turned, intending to confront the reaper, when he saw that Kravitz had also taken several strides towards the last place Taako had stood, searching around with a look of concern that confused Magnus.

Merle was suddenly behind him, making his own charge towards Kravitz. Magnus wanted nothing more than to join him, but Taako’s last words ( _not Last Words, just the last words_ ) rang in his head.

“Merle, wait. I don’t understand how, but Taako said he’s here to help.” Magnus threw our his hand to hold Merle back, and turned towards the dark haired reaper. “So. What are you doing here? What’s going on? Is this because we died a bunch in that town? because I think we had a goddess clear that…"

“Yeah, explain,” Merle growled in a way that Magnus assumed was intended to be threatening. He felt a familiar sensation as Zone of Truth washed over the three of them.

“Right. Well,” Kravitz fidgeted uncomfortably, “I’m here because Taako asked me to come. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what he was doing, he didn’t exactly say anything. As far as Refuge, I have no bounty for any of you on that, and Taako explained the whole situation–“

“What? When? When were you with Taako?” Magnus interrupted.

“And why didn’t he kill you for ruining my arm? and trying to kill all of us I guess?” Merle supplied.

Kravitz looked more uncomfortable by the minute. “Yes, I assume he didn’t mention for some reason. After Refuge I came by your base to investigate that particular anomaly. And when I had more questions, Taako decided we should go to that, um, the Chug ’n’ Squeeze? And we talked there. We were corresponding via stone of farspeech some since then. That’s how he was able to contact me and I assume he wanted me to come here, those two elfs were liches, which are an undead creature we don’t see very often and–"

“Wait a minute.” Magnus stopped him again. “Are you two like, dating?”

If it weren’t for the direness of the situation Magnus would’ve enjoyed seeing the bounty hunter look so flustered.

“I mean, we haven’t exactly put any sort of label on it, and this particular instance is…"

“Okay, we get it,” Merle interjected, seeming remarkably okay with the situation “you and Taako are boning. What are we going to do about the fact that two holograms just kidnapped his ass?"

Kravitz looked like he was struggling with the decision of whether to correct the dwarf or accept the chance to move the conversation foward. “They're liches. And I have a cursory knowledge of Wonderland, I assume you all have discovered its premise as well."

“It wants us to suffer. And seems to be feeding on it with this black smoke stuff that comes out of our mouths,” Magnus said.

“Yes,” Kravitz seemed almost impressed, “And I assume that, given how much you two care for Taako, and how badly injured he seemed– What happened to him, if I may ask?"

“He rolled bad luck on the wheel of misfortune,” Merle replied, “And got a big block of machinery dropped on him."

Kravitz’s face went grey for a moment. “I assume that they’ve decided to incorporate him into this game they’re playing with you. Forcing you to choose whether the life of your friend is more important than whatever you came here looking for."

Magnus tensed, unsure how to react. He knew the Animus Bell was important. Retrieving the relics and destroying them would save countless lives, but was it worth losing Taako? Could he live with himself knowing it was his decision?

“Wait just a minute,” Merle interrupted his thoughts, “those elf things were looking at you too, Mr. Deathface. Maybe Taako is your deepest desire too.”

Kravitz shifted, “I do care about him, but I don’t know…” Magnus could see him struggling with the Zone of Truth still binding them, “The liches said there was a choice. Since I’m assuming they’re not offering to allow me to escort their souls to the astral plane, I’m not sure what they’re doing.”

“We’re here looking for some sort of Bell? The Animus Bell? We’re not really sure what it does,” Magnus offered.

“The Animus Bell?” Kravitz asked with a start. "That’s a powerful instrument of necromancy, it was thought to be lost in the wars. If that’s here, that’s almost certainly what the liches are using to power this place."

“So,” Merle said, “they probably won’t be too keen to give it to us, huh."

“I would imagine not,” Kravitz replied, “and if I could get that to the Raven Queen, or even if you three get it out of here and destroy it, that could look very good for me at work.”

“So we’re all in the same boat then,” Magnus said, “it’s Taako or the Animus Bell. And you say they won’t give us the bell. So it seems pretty obvious."

“Perhaps,” Kravitz replied, “but even if they return Taako to us, there’s still no guarantee you’ll all survive. Taako is very badly injured, I could feel it. He..."

“Your death-y senses were tingling, we get it,” Merle said, “What do you suggest we do, hot shot?"

“I don’t know!” Kravitz started to look around the room, apparently searching for any sort of clue.

Magnus followed suit, still reeling from everything his mind was slowly processing. They had to save Taako somehow. He wondered what the Director would do in this scenario. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to know the answer. They’d already figured out they had to find some way to cheat the game, but now the stakes felt real. What if there wasn’t a way to get them both? The elves didn’t want them to leave alive, so if the bell was giving them power, it seemed like the most likely course to victory. But if they failed, or they didn’t get there in time, who knew what the elves would do to Taako?

Magnus didn’t know much about Taako’s past, but he knew it had taken a long time for the wizard to trust Magnus to watch his back. He’d known a lot of people like that back during the rebellion, and knew it was an instinct that didn’t come from just being a TV chef.

He looked around hopelessly at the room, hoping that somehow Merle or Kravitz were having better luck than he thinking of solutions. They had nothing to go on. They didn’t even know how much time they had, how much time Taako had. He couldn’t believe their best hope was an undead bounty hunter Taako had apparently been going on secret dates with.

But, that was Taako. Taako who could con Garfield out of the most powerful sword at the Fantasy Costco. Taako who always seemed to be taking the most damage in battle, no matter how many goading strikes Magnus tried. Taako who still always managed to be okay. Taako's self-preservation had gotten him this far. Magnus was sure as hell they’d find a way to get him out of this. They had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this ended up being sort of exposition heavy but it was necessary I guess? I promise more cold hard angst next time lol. gonna try to have at least one more chapter up before the next real episode comes out (!!) and messes this all up but I'll probably keep going and decide what to incorporate. just gotta figure out what i'm doing


End file.
